Abby has been on an adventure, but no one seems sure just where she has been for the past three years.

Her owner, who was then living in Alabama, was on a visit to the Denver three years ago, said Lehman, spokesman for the Dumb Friends League of Denver. On the trip to Denver, Abby disappeared.

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On May 13, a motorist was at the intersection of Cottonwood and Jordan streets in Parker when the good-hearted passer-by spotted an obviously lost Abby and scooped her up.

Next stop was

Abby is crated, waiting to fly home. (Dumb Friends League)

the Dumb Friends League shelter in Castle Rock.

“She was nervous and shaking but not overly fearful,” said Lehman.

She had not been attacked by other dogs and not been abused. But she had not been fed properly, said Lehman. She did not have a collar or an ID tag. But the shelter did a microchip scan and found that Abby had been registered with, and received a microchip from, Animal Health’s HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service.

With that information, the Dumb Friends League called the phone number on the registration with no success. Then a postcard was sent, which was forwarded to the owner, who had moved to Louisville, Ky.

The owner called.

“She was super thankful we wanted to take care of Abby and contact her,” said Lehman.

When Lehman took Abby to DIA today, it was obvious she was happy to be getting out of a month of shelter care in Castle Rock and then in Denver. She seemed to love the atmosphere at DIA, he added.

“Beagles are adventurous,” said Lehman. “She was very excited. She was excited in a good way.”

More than 5 million people have registered their cats and dogs with HomeAgain, and there have been about 500,000 reunions, the company said today. HomeAgain pays the cost of flying a pet home.

Abby is not taking a direct flight. She’ll fly to Atlanta on Delta Airlines and then transfer to a flight to Louisville.

Sometime after 8 p.m., she should be in Louisville and back with her owner.

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